We released a new version of the ATLAS app today, 2.41 for the x86_64-pc-linux-gnu platform.
The new features of this version include:
1. It requires the host OS to be either Scentific Linux 6 or Cent OS 7.
2. It require CVMFS and Singularity instead of Virtualbox to run the ATLAS jobs.
3. It is more efficient, as the avoidance of using Virtualbox.
Currently, this version is set to beta version.

For people who want to try it out,we provide a script to install everything including CVMFS, singularity here,

We released a new version of the ATLAS app today, 2.41 for the x86_64-pc-linux-gnu platform.
The new features of this version include:
1. It requires the host OS to be either Scentific Linux 6 or Cent OS 7.
2. It require CVMFS and Singularity instead of Virtualbox to run the ATLAS jobs.
3. It is more efficient, as the avoidance of using Virtualbox.
Currently, this version is set to beta version.

For people who want to try it out,we provide a script to install everything including CVMFS, singularity here,
http://atlasathome.cern.ch/boinc_conf/install_cvmfs_sin.sh

Try it if you are interested!

Sounds nice, at least at first glance, but I have some questions:

1. Why is it hosted on the old ATLAS server and not on the dev server?
2. Is it based on the version David Cameron has tested a few months ago?
3. Why is it restricted to the mentioned distributions? Simply not tested on others or due to some specific requirements?

1. Why is it hosted on the old ATLAS server and not on the dev server?
2. Is it based on the version David Cameron has tested a few months ago?
3. Why is it restricted to the mentioned distributions? Simply not tested on others or due to some specific requirements?

1. Only the script file for installing cvmfs/singularity is hosted on the old ATLAS server, the app is still on the lhcathome server.
2. Yes, it is based on the native version David tested a few months ago
3. So far we only tested it on SLC6 and CentOS 7, it might work on other Linux, depending on if one can successfully install the CVMFS and Singularity there.
So please feel free to try, and we would appreciate the feedback on that.

3. So far we only tested it on SLC6 and CentOS 7, it might work on other Linux, depending on if one can successfully install the CVMFS and Singularity there.
So please feel free to try, and we would appreciate the feedback on that.

Im gonna try it on Debian (in a week or so). I will let you know if i was successfull.

Edit:

1. Why is it hosted on the old ATLAS server and not on the dev server?

Good point. The native app is only shown on atlasathome.cern.ch and not on lhcathome.cern.ch or the dev site.

Good point. The native app is only shown on atlasathome.cern.ch and not on lhcathome.cern.ch or the dev site.

Actually it is on lhcathome.cern.ch,as I mentioned early, it is set to be beta version, so you need to enable "test app" in the lhcathome preference in your account, otherwise, you do not receive jobs from the native app..

The current situation is as follows:
1. I installed CVMFS (from CERN) and singularity (from my distro's repository)
2. CVMFS connects to the ATLAS dirs
3. A BOINC client instance is prepared to be attached to the project.

After point 3 there are still open issues.

http://atlasathome.cern.ch/boinc_conf/start_boinc shows the following command:

Indeed, there is a Singularity package (named singluarity-container) for Ubuntu 17.04. It is version 2.2 while the latest Singularity version on the website is at 2.3.1. Since there have been 2 security related updates since, one labeled as moderate the other as high severity issue, I thought it worthwhile to compile the latest version from source.
As for the CVMFS, I'll make an attempt to compile it on Ubuntu 17.04 as soon as I can.

It seems to be set up OK on Ubuntu 16.10. But since I don't use a Proxy, that was a bit of a puzzle until I set CVMFS_HTTP_PROXY=DIRECT in the default.local file. Now it all checks out OK, though I have no work yet.

But I am wondering about a SQUID. I have a good Internet connection (25 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up) and don't think I need one. Would it help the CERN servers? Maybe someone can give some setup guidance if so.

It seems to be set up OK on Ubuntu 16.10. But since I don't use a Proxy, that was a bit of a puzzle until I set CVMFS_HTTP_PROXY=DIRECT in the default.local file. Now it all checks out OK, though I have no work yet.

But I am wondering about a SQUID. I have a good Internet connection (25 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up) and don't think I need one. Would it help the CERN servers? Maybe someone can give some setup guidance if so.

You really only need a squid if you have more than one cvmfs instance, since cvmfs caches too, as well as the squid. I've been through this at work; I did eventually set up a squid because a server became available, and because I'll probably end up installing cvmfs on all our machines rather than just our Grid user-interface -- when I get enough round tuits.

CERN's vbox apps can get a huge benefit from a local squid.
CMS benefits most, then ATLAS and LHCb, Theory less but sufficient.
Up to 95 % regarding the request hits and 50 % regarding the byte hits.
The setup needs some special tuning compared to the standard setup and should get some assist from iptables.

An "old" computer with a core 2 duo, 1-2 GB RAM (250-350 MB for squid), 30-80 GB free disk space is far enough.
And there is also a benefit for fast DSL lines as the squid avoids latency.

CERN's vbox apps can get a huge benefit from a local squid.
CMS benefits most, then ATLAS and LHCb, Theory less but sufficient.
Up to 95 % regarding the request hits and 50 % regarding the byte hits.
The setup needs some special tuning compared to the standard setup and should get some assist from iptables.

I don't know if it helps much, but I use a large write-cache anyway on all my Ubuntu machines. They have 32 GB of memory, and I devote half of it to the cache. That would not be as sophisticated as a squid, but it does not require any special tuning either. I might give squid a try later.

But maybe all the other apps can move to CVMFS instead? That would be interesting.